Davis v. Painting & Decorating Contractors of America

126 So. 2d 876, 240 Miss. 394, 1961 Miss. LEXIS 474
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 13, 1961
DocketNo. 41672
StatusPublished

This text of 126 So. 2d 876 (Davis v. Painting & Decorating Contractors of America) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Davis v. Painting & Decorating Contractors of America, 126 So. 2d 876, 240 Miss. 394, 1961 Miss. LEXIS 474 (Mich. 1961).

Opinion

Lee, P. J.

This is a claim by Ealph Davis against the Painting and Decorating Contractors of America, Jackson Chapter, an unincorporated association, and others for the recovery of workmen’s compensation benefits. The claim was denied by the attorney referee, the Commission, and the circuit court; and the claimant has appealed to this Court.

J. E. Sherrod was a general contractor in the City of Jackson. He was not a member of the Painting and Decorating Contractors of America, Jackson Chapter, was not a party to any contract with the Brotherhood of Painters, Decorators and Paper Hangers of America, Local Union No. 1192, Jackson, Mississippi, or any other union contract, and was not apprised of the existence of any contract between the Chapter and the Union. He was the prime contractor for certain work to be done at 457 Eidgeway Street in the City of Jackson, and he made a contract with J. C. Benson to do the painting at a fixed price.

Ealph Davis was a painter by trade. In search for employment, he called J. C. Benson over the telephone, prior to July 28, 1958, and Benson agreed to give him a job. On the morning of July 28,1958, as he, Benson, and Leo King were preparing to paint the gable of the house, the ladder and scaffold, on which Davis was working, fell. He was thrown to the ground, a distance of twelve to fifteen feet, and sustained a serious and painful injury to his back.

While Davis had not been paid for the time that he worked on the day of his injury, he admitted that he had [399]*399worked for Benson on other occasions, and for the work done at those times, he was paid by Benson; and that he expected Benson to pay him for the work on this occasion. At no time had he ever received payment of any kind from the Painting and Decorating Contractors of America, Jackson Chapter.

Davis admitted that Benson told him what to do and supervised him in his work; and that the ladder on which he was working belonged to Benson. He said he knew that all of the defendants, except Sherrod, were members of the Painting and Decorating Contractors of America, Jackson Chapter, but admitted that he did not expect any one of them, except Benson, to pay him for his work; and that he was working for Benson and that none of the other defendants maintained any supervision over him.

There was the following stipulation and agreement of fact between the claimant and the defendants in substance to-wit: There is a national association called the Painting and Decorating Contractors of America, and that there is a Jackson Chapter of this organization. The individuals named in claimant’s pleading, except Mr. Sherrod, are members of that association. In the spring of 1958, the association appointed a committee to negotiate a form contract with the Brotherhood of Painters, Decorators, and Paper Hangers of America, Local Union No. 1192. A copy of the contract form was introduced in evdience. The named committee was acting as bargaining agent for the painting and other decorating* contractors. The contract was not signed by the Painting and Decorating Contractors of America, but was executed as individual contracts by the members named in the claimant’s pleading, but was not signed by certain other contractors belonging to the association. The same contract was subsequently signed by other painting and decorating contractors in the Jackson area who were not members of the Painting and Decorating Contractors of Amer[400]*400ica. Each member of that association carries his own payrolls and own social security numbers with the Federal G-overnment for the purpose of withholding social security and income tax. The members compete against each other for painting and decorating contracts. The association met informally once each month at Primos Restaurant on North State Street but kept no minutes. It did not engage in any business for profit. It simply received dues from its members. At the meetings each member paid for his own meal. Dues were used to cover letterhead and other incidental expenses with a part thereof being sent to the national chapter. Each member of the association, who felt that he was required to do so, carried his own workmen’s compensation insurance.

The Painting and Decorating Contractors of America is a voluntary, unincorporated association, had no employees as such, maintained no office, and engaged in no painting and decorating work under contract as an association. The individual members do engage in obtaining contracts for painting and decorating* in competition with each other and other contractors not members of the association, but who have individually signed the contract. There is no contract having* more than one individual signature upon it. There is no contract purported to have been signed by the Painting and Decorating Contractors of America. Each contract was signed individually by such contractors as saw fit to do so. All contracts signed individually, whether by members of the association or outside contractors, contained the identical wording and were identical with the contract which was introduced in evidence.

The appellant poses a number of questions; but, in their final analysis, they amount to this: By reason of the agreement entered into by and between the Painting and Decorating Contractors of America, Jackson Chapter, designated “the contractor or employer”, and the [401]*401Brotherhood of Painters, Decorators and Paper Hangers of America, Local Union No. 1192, Jackson, Mississippi, designated “the union or employees”, both the Jackson Chapter, and the defendants, other than Sherrod, were his special employers, and that he is entitled, on that account, to receive workmen’s compensation benefits from the individual defendants and their insurers.

Section 1, Article 11 of that contract provides as follows: “For all employees covered by this agreement the Employer shall carry Workmen’s Compensation Insurance with a company authorized to do business in the State of Mississippi, Social Security, Unemployment Compensation Insurance coverage, and such other protective insurance that may be required by the laws of this State and shall furnish copies of these certificates and account numbers to the Union.” (Emphasis supplied.)

Obviously the Jackson Chapter of the Painting and Decorating* Contractors of America has no liability for workmen’s compensation benefits in this matter even though it is designated, in the agreement, as the “contractor or employer. ’ ’ In the first place, it is agreed that the organization did not execute the agreement. In the second place, by the very terms of Sec. 6998-03, Code of 1942, Pec., “all non-profit charitable, fraternal, cultural or religious corporations or associations” are expressly excluded from the provisions of the act. "Webster’s New International Dictionary, Second Edition, defines a fraternal society, association or order as follows: “A society organized for the pursuit of some common object by working together in brotherly union; specif., a benefit society organized with a representative form of government, and not carried on for profit, and, often, consisting of members of the same trade or occupation or allied ones.”

Undoubtedly the Jackson Chapter of this association, under the stipulation or agreement as to facts, is a fra[402]*402ternal association within the purview of the Workmen’a Compensation Act, and is therefore excluded from the provisions of that Act.

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Bluebook (online)
126 So. 2d 876, 240 Miss. 394, 1961 Miss. LEXIS 474, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/davis-v-painting-decorating-contractors-of-america-miss-1961.